A Starting Point for Unchurched People - Adam Johnson & Tim Cooper

People near our churches are ready to have spiritual conversations. Where can they go? In this breakout, we'll share our answer to that question.

I. Understanding how people grow will help us create their best next step.

A. There are spiritually curious people within driving distance of every church.

B. Churches are generally not perceived as the safest places to ask questions, express doubts, or share disagreements.

C. The church should be the best place to have those conversations.

D. There are 5 thresholds people go through on the path to growing faith:

1. Trusting a Christian2. Becoming curious about faith3. Being open to change4. Seeking God5. Entering a relationship with God

II. We must be intentional about creating the best environment for peel to have safe conversations about faith.

A. Creating the right environment begins with understanding who the environment is for.

We can create environments where God can cause heart change.

B. The priority is creating a safe place for the participants to explore faith at their own pace.C. The content is driven by a conversation, not a presentation. A presentation is clean and neat; a conversation is messy.D. During a Starting Point group, participants experience Christian communitiy, perhaps for the first time.III. The effectiveness of the environment depends only the posture of our leaders.A. There is not a right way to lead Starting Point, but we have found there is a right posture.B. Leaders who embody this posture ask great questions.1. Ask "what" and "how", not why.2. Respond to questions with questions.C. Remember, method trumps message every single time.